Firefighters preparing for the worst

Firefighters from Hazleton, West Hazleton and Mahanoy City learned new tactics on Sunday for their Rapid Intervention Team Training (RIT) sponsored by the West Hazleton Fire Department. Top photo, firefighters pull a fellow firefighter from a hole in the floor while practicing the Columbus Drill, a live scenario of rescuing a fellow firefighter who has fallen through the floor. Above, firefighters prepare to enter a burning structure to extricate a firefighter who has become trapped. Right, Brian Scott, standing right, a firefighter with the Scranton Fire Department and an instructor with the Berks County Community College, explains the Columbus Drill to firefighters.

On Sunday, roughly 25 area firefighters spent time training together so that if they encounter a unique situation, they might be ready.

However, this training was developed from scenarios where a fire claimed a firefighter's life.

West Hazleton Fire sponsored the Rapid Intervention Team Training (RIT) using an uninhabited Spruce Street home scheduled for demolition.

Some of the firefighters, which hail from West Hazleton, Hazleton and Citizens Fire Co., of Mahanoy City, brushed up on the RIT tactics they learned years ago while others saw them in action for the first time, West Hazleton Fire Chief Robert Ward said.

The tactics are specialized for rescuing a firefighter and were administered by A.J. Gilgallon of the Tobyhanna Army Depot and Pennsylvania Urban Search and Rescue, and Brian Scott, Scranton City firefighter, also of Pennsylvania Search and Rescue Team.

West Hazleton has been trained in RIT for about three years, Ward said. He said Citizens Fire Co., provides RIT response to West Hazleton's fires. The RIT team, he said, is at the fire scene, ready to jump into a burning building to save a firefighters' life.

Ward indicated that the borough fire department utilizes the training so that if a situation would arise with a jeopardized firefighter, there would be a group of firefighters who could save his/her life.

For roughly nine hours, the men and women were taught RIT through a hands-on approach, acting out various scenarios.

"Every drill we do is because somebody died," Gilgallon told the class.

The training, they hope, will help prevent similar fatalities.

Each scenario is named after the town where a fire claimed a firefighter's life.

In the Denver, Colo. drill, a firefighter died after becoming trapped in a narrow space surrounded by filing cabinets. Simulating the event, firefighters had to locate the victim, which was acted out by a firefighter. They then removed him from location and hoisted him out a window to safety.

"It's very strenuous," Ward said of the training.

In another scenario, a firefighter was trapped inside a hole between the basement and first floor of a structure. Only his torso and head were visible to other firefighters that worked to free him.

And in a third training exercise, a firefighter was lowered onto the basement floor from a hole in the first floor. Gilgallon called it the "Columbus, Ohio drill."

The rescue simulates an actual event where a firefighter died after falling through a floor into a basement. His colleagues tried numerous times to rescue the fallen firefighter, but to no avail.

Gilgallon used a rope to tie a hand-cuff knot around the fake victim's hands and feet and firefighters pulled him up to the first floor.

There isn't a lot of time to plot which methods of rescue firefighters will have to implore in an actual situation, but Gilgallon said the skills learned during the RIT training will give them a better chance at a successful rescue.

Firefighters pulled the fake victim by the handcuff knot out of the hole to the first floor.

"I don't care how I get him out. The end result is he's got to get out of the building," Gilgallon said.

Warning alarms echoed from firefighters' air packs. The sound goes off after a firefighter hasn't moved for 45 seconds and helps firefighters locate an injured or trapped firefighter.

Ward said many people made the training a success.

He said Pixie Paradise, a child care facility which abutts the property, purchased the home that the firefighters used for the training session.

The facility plans to demolish the home and use the lot for a playground.

Jim's Welding in West Hazleton provided a metal lock mock up so firefighters could get used to breaking through it to reach someone in need and West Hazleton Ambulance was on hand for firefighter rehabilitation.

achristman@standardspeaker.com

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1 posted comments

I think this training, while sad when you realize why it's necessary, is a wonderful tool our firefighters can use to not only save residents, but other firefighters as well. Well done, RIT team!

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